Thursday, May 10, 2018

The first five maps and guidebook for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy is available for sale!

I am pleased to announce the release of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. This is one of four products covering the eighteen maps that encompasses the Judges Guild Wilderlands setting. This product covers five of the maps as detailed below. The four sets combined will cover a region equal in size to Western Europe providing years and decades of adventuring for you and your group.

Unlike many setting products, the Wilderlands sketches out the overview and history in light detail. Then presents a comprehensive list of local detail in a compact format that is customizable. This eliminates much of the tedious work involved in creating a setting and allows the referee to focus on the campaign and the grand adventures the players face as their characters.

This is presented at two products both in PDF and Print on Demand.

The first product is a 24 page guidebook containing a brief overview of and commentary on the first five maps of the Wilderlands along with lists covering details on Villages, Castles, Lairs, Ruins, and Islands.

Included with the Guidebook are letter sized blank map of the Wilderlands that can be used to take notes during a campaign. A PDF with the map legend. A letter size black and white guide to the placement of each of the 18 maps within the Wilderlands.

Finally a giant sized preliminary version of the master map that I used to crop the individual maps from. With the right printer this can be printed as a full scale map 5 feet wide and 8 feet long. With the PDF you can selectively copy out regions as complete maps that overlap the borders of the 18 maps. After the release of the final set of maps this file will be updated as a layered PDF allowing for custom maps of the Wilderlands to be copied or created.

The second product is a set of five maps: City-State of the Invincible Overlord, Barbarian Altanis, Valley of the Ancients, Tarantis, and Valon. When ordered via print on the demand they are printed in two overlapping halves each on a 12" by 18" poster. In addition each map is presented as a 22" by 17" PDF file.

The maps have been redrawn from the original in a color style. Instead of the distinct symbols of the original maps, terrain has been drawn as a transparent fill and vegetation represented by colored areas. This allows both terrain and vegetation to overlap. Representing more accurately the complexity and diversity of the Wilderland's geography.

This release will be followed by the Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde in a few weeks covering the next five maps of the Wilderlands.

13 comments:

Hey Rob, or anyone in the know, The Majestic Supplement is for S+W rules, is that using White Box, Core or Complete. I guess since it's Sup 4, you are aiming at White Box. But I notice Blackmarsh and Scourge have variable damage by weapons. I know they're pretty much mix and match and do your own thing, but just wondering? Thanks :)

Purchased, however something unimportant bugs me. Are there any descriptions of the cultural and racial characteristics of the different people in the Wilderlands?

I remember seeing on some distant blog I've never found again, a map which explain the authors interpretations of the human cultures and their multitudes of different colors. But you seem to be the new gatekeeper of the lore.

@Morgan Long, my goal is basically a updated version of the original which unlike many later settings didn't have much in the way of high level detail like cultural and racial characteristics.

The general idea is that based on the local data supplied you come up with your own high level details.

The Necromancer products (Players Guide, Boxed Set), my Majestic Wilderlands, and Mishler's Wilderlands of High Adventures all have their own take on the original details. The Necromancer Players Guide and Boxed Set incorporate Bob Bledsaw Senior original notes and recollections of his campaign. The Majestic Wilderlands and WoHA represent what James Mishler and I did with the original products.

Thanks for this beautiful work! I’ve had the originals and Necromancer’s 3.5 version for years, and have made some use of them, but with the maps and elegant update of the data you’ve provided I hope to use it to its full wandering sandbox potential. I am desperate for the next set!! Perhaps you could put all of your other responsibilities completely on hold and work day and night on this, fueled by pots of black coffee and my whining? Thanks!!

Bat in the Attic Games

How to make a Sandbox

The Old School Renaissance

To me the Old School Renaissance is not about playing a particular set of rules in a particular way, the dungeon crawl. It is about going back to the roots of our hobby and seeing what we could do differently. What avenues were not explored because of the commercial and personal interests of the game designers of the time.

What are RPGs?

A game where the players play individual characters interacting with a setting with their actions adjudicated by a human referee.

Rules are an aide to help the referee adjudicate actions and to help the players interact with the setting.

Dice are used to inject uncertainty which make a tabletop RPG campaign more interesting than "Let's Pretend".

The only thing a player needs to do to roleplay a character is to act if he or she was really there in the setting in that situation.